Chapter 71 – Heavenly Dragon (1)
When Lin Yu Tong, woke up, she heard beeping sounds from the nutrition pod. Because her body had not been used for a week, it did not feel very good.
The pod door was opened. The female supervisor Gao Ming was standing outside. When Lin Yu Tong metGao Ming’s gaze, she suddenly understood why a woman in her thirties had such an aged pair of eyes.
“Welcome back.” Gao Ming reached to Lin Yu Tong to help pull her up.
A bitter smile appeared on Lin Yu Tong’s lips. She had returned, but she had many people she did not bear to part with.
“I said long ago, this is a job that is well paid but wearing. Are you all right?” Gao Ming pulled Lin Yu Tong out and helped her to sit on a sofa nearby.
Lin Yu Tong looked at the shorts and T-shirt she wore and felt uneasy. “Can I change clothes?”
Gao Ming nodded in understanding, and pointed at the suitcase on the side.
Yes, the things in the pocket space could not be taken out.
Lin Yu Tong nodded gratefully towards Gao Ming. She stood and moved into her pocket space. On the dressing table, each piece of jewelry had been given to her by Wen Tian Fang, and there was the box of diamonds she had not finished using. Looking at these things which carried too many memories, Lin Yu Tong felt like her heart had been torn out, and she could not fill it up.
The tears poured out of her eyes in a flood. So a new start was so hard.
Lin Yu Tong did not know how long she cried in her pocket space. But after she released her emotions, she felt better. Her body was a bit stiff. Lin Yu Tong drank some of the spring water, washed up, and then opened the suitcase. Inside were long skirts that could fall down to her feet and long sleeved silk shirts. Lin Yu Tong kicked off the sandals she wore and put on the flat cloth shoes. She put her hair up, and tied it with a silk ribbon before she felt more comfortable.
The person in the mirror had a pale face and red eyes. She was still young, but she had a pair of eyes that seemed to see through people.
Lin Yu Tong took a deep breath and then came out of the pocket space. She saw Gao Ming waiting outside, not impatient at all. She said, “Sorry to make you wait so long.”
“I understand.” Gao Ming smiled in sympathy. She understood these people who came from different worlds. She never asked too much about what they had experienced. These were each person’s secret. She changed the topic, “The company is finding experts to validate the medicine recipes that you have passed back. For the ones they have already validated, the experts agree highly.”
Lin Yu Tong nodded, and was not surprised. Lin Dai Yu had spent most of her life testing them on patients. Of course there would not be big problems.
Gao Ming said, “There are two plans now. One is the company will buy the medicine recipes and give you the money once. The other kind is the company is planning to gather capital, make our own medicine factory, make-up factory. We can give you ten percent of the stock.” As though she feared Lin Yu Tong would feel that the stock was not reasonable, she hurriedly explained, “Regardless of the company, the early investment is not a small sum, and a lot of capital has to be gathered. Ten percent is the maximum that the company can give.”
Lin Yu Tong nodded. Of course she hoped to get ten percent of the stock. “Do I have to sign a contract?” She knew that if she bargained, she would get some more, but she did not know how to manage this, and her wealth would have to pass through the hands of other people. If she was so petty, she may lose more. Also, she had to rely on the company in the future. For example, if she went to another world in the future, the body would be left in the nutrition pod. Without the fine care of the company, she did not dare to imagine the state of her body. Lin Yu Tong could not afford such a result. After being old for one, she knew the importance of being healthy. Also, moving through the real world and the other worlds depended on the company. It was not profitable to fight over such a small benefit.
Suffering a loss was benefiting. Maybe, her mindset had changed, or she had seen too much wealth that she did not fight too long over this with herself.
Gao Ming raised her eyebrows. She had not expected Lin Yu Tong to be so brisk. She took out the contract from her folder, and had Lin Yu Tong sign.
“If anything happens to you, the property will be transferred to the names of your parents,” Gao Ming explained. In other words, the company would not throw her into another world and not let her return just for this bit of money. It would give Lin Yu Tong a reassurance.
“Also, when you are not present, the company will give you an assistant. Your pod will be promoted to A-rank. The assistant will take good care of your body. Also, if your family has any matters, the company will take care of it for you,” Gao Ming added.
This was likely the bargaining chips the company had thought of when Gao Ming was sent to discuss with her. Now that she took a step back, both sides appeared honorable.
“How is it? Do you need to rest a few days?” Gao Ming asked in a whisper.
“No need to rest, if I rest, my heart will not rest,” Lin Yu Tong sighed. “Maybe if I have something to do, I will feel better.”
Gao Ming sighed as well. “That is good. This time, the company still hopes that you focus on gathering medicine recipes, and expand the variety of products.”
“Where?” Lin Yu Tong asked.
“You know……” Gao Ming was helpless. “Our technology is not so precise right now. No one can control where you go, it is based on your luck.”
Lin Yu Tong had lived to her seventies, and felt that her composure was very good, but she almost could not help but swear. Lucky that she had went to the Dream of the Red Chamber, and there were not many people who could pose a threat to her. But not every world was safe.
Gao Ming could see Lin Yu Tong’s worry and said, “The company will level up your pocket space. You know, the company will pay a great price to do this. The space will not increase in size, but will have the ability to warn and protect. It will make sure that you will not be killed by people in the other worlds.”
Lin Yu Tong thought, it appeared the company thought very well of the medicine company. Otherwise, they would not have expended such effort to protect her.
She nodded and said, “That’s good.”
The space leveling up just took less than an hour. Using this chance, Lin Yu Tong phoned her family and friends to say she was safe. Because the company insisted on this being a secret, no one knew what job she had. The company was said to be an import-export company. Because of this, people thought that she was traveling around the world, and most of her time was spent on business trips.
Just after she took care of this, Gao Ming came with a storage box. “Do not feel this looks small, but the space in here is very large. It is the materials that the company has prepared for you.”
Toothbrushes, towels, sanitary napkins, all kinds of medicines, dart gun, sleeping bags and other things.
Last time, she did not have such benefits. It could only be said that the company saw her value and was willing to invest.
“Don’t worry, I am just responsible for you alone now. I will take care of everything for you, don’t worry,” Gao Ming said when Lin Yu Tong laid down in the higher rank nutrition pod.
Before Lin Yu Tong could nod in thanks, the red button above the nutrition pod flashed. Then, she felt a wave of dizziness.
When Lin Yu Tong woke up, what she smelled was blood, a lot of it. Lin Yu Tong, who had been a noble miss and then a noble woman for several decades, could not endure this, and also vomited.
Then, she felt something smelly and sticky licking her face. The warning alarm in her head sounded.
Lin Yu Tong hurriedly opened her eyes and then her hairs stood on end. If she saw correctly, the organism in front of her was an animal she only had seen in zoos before, a wolf. She instinctively screamed, and then flashed into her pocket space.
Sitting next to the spring, Lin Yu Tong could not control her breathing. The company was just as unreliable as usual. What was this? She just came and almost got eaten by a wolf.
With a twist of her head, she found a very dirty child appear in the reflection of the spring water. Yes, this was definitely the body of a child. From her height, about eleven or twelve. The key was, this child did not wear anything, and her hair was a mess. Lin Yu Tong almost thought she had fallen into a primitive world.
She sat down and slowly accepted the child’s memories. Then she found that this child was a feral child raised by a pack of wolves. She moved around with them all the time, and then ate raw meat. She never learned how to talk. The last memory in the child’s mind was another pack of wolves coming to the forest, and the two sides started to fight. The wolf pack that the child belonged to had been killed by the other pack. The child almost became food for the wolves except that she had arrived.
Lin Yu Tong opened her eyes. From the child’s memories, she could not get any information. She sighed. She had to first survive, then leave the forest and find humans.
There would definitely be wolves still outside. The child’s body was very weak. Lin Yu Tong could only temporarily stay in the pocket space.
She went to the washroom and cleaned up. She changed out the water four or five times before she was content. Maybe because the girl did not have clothes, her skin was very tanned. However, after nourishing it, it would turn white. Also, she had thick callouses on her hands and feet. She may have moved on her hands and feet, creating these. The body even had countless wounds of various sizes. Lin Yu Tong felt for this child.
She found the medicine in the pocket space and applied them to her wound. Now, the body was hers. She could care for herself. When Lin Yu Tong inspected her left arm, she saw the old scar on the arm looked like a character. After puzzling it out for a while, Lin Yu Tong could not help but swear. She finally guessed where this was.
The character on her arm was a “Duan” character.
In the story of the Eight Books of the Heavenly Dragon, Azhu and Azi had a “Duan” character on their shoulders, but Lin Yu Tong was certain that she would not be Azhu or Azi. Did Ruan Xing Zhu birth another daughter?
She truly could not like the women in the novel, for example, Ruan Xing Zhu, Gan Bao Bao, Qin Hong Mian, Kang Min and Madam Wang.
Especially Ruan Xing Zhu. She could not understand the woman.
No one knew which family she came from, but some said that she came from a noble family. The family had strict rules, so she had to give her children to others. But where would a daughter from a noble family learn martial arts? She was very good at swimming. The misses of noble families could learn to swim, but it was not so easy to be skilled in doing so. When had she learned this? Even if these were true, she was able to come out of her family, and live by the Little Mirror Lake. She did not have a hard life, and she lived away from the world. Why could she not raise her own children. She could give her children away, but why scar her children? How could she bear to do such a thing? Just from looking at the scar, she knew that the wound had been infected. Otherwise, it would not be so ugly. How did the young child suffer this pain back then? Also, did she not know where she left her children? How had she chosen this family? Why did one of her daughters end up a servant girl? The other homeless and fighting for her life with the jianghu? Even if she had been helpless back then, when she was in a better situation, did she think of finding her children? She did not. She just kept on thinking of the man who did not belong to her. What kind of thinking was this?
What people could not understand was that Azhu and Azi were not twins. If they were twins, when the two met, they would have recognized each other by appearance. But, they did not. So, the two were not twins. Likely, Azhu was one to two years older than Azi.
People could not understand this even more. She gave birth to Azhu and gave her away. Then she was lovey-dovey with Duan Zheng Chun together, not mentioning the child she had sent away. Then, she gave birth to Azi, and then still gave her away. She could not make the mistake three times.
This world was so twisted. She could not understand how they thought.
Also, if not for her arrival, her body would have not existed long time ago. No one would search for their family, and Ruan Xing Zhu would not remember this child.
Thinking for a while, Lin Yu Tong quickly applied the medicine and flipped through the clothing that she had saved before. She put them on, and then looked at her hands and feet. Lin Yu Tong planned to take good care. From a person’s hands, it was possible to see someone’s birth easily.
She did not want people to know of her past as a wolf child. Because if she came into contact with people, if she spoke, people would know this was not the skill level of a child raised by wolves.
During her recovery, Lin Yu Tong stayed in the pocket space and did not go anywhere. Maybe the air in the space was nourishing, or maybe it was the spring water that caused her to recover quickly. She ended up very pale. Even her hands and feet did not look rough at all after shedding several layers of skin. She thought it was time to go out. But the clothing from her space was too eye-catching. The attire of the Red Chamber and the Song Dynasty were different. She flipped through the cloth, found some unremarkable gray cloth, and made some simple robes. She put her hair up with a peach wood hairpin and looked androgynous.
After preparing, she did not want to stay any longer. People were social creatures. If they continued, she would go mad. Also the space was only so big. Her half a year here was like time spent in prison. She found the dart gun. This was her only weapon right now.
If she remembered correctly, when she first came, it was early spring. Now, it was deep into autumn. The trees had turned yellow. She did not see the blood from before.
Lin Yu Tong felt that she had inherited everything from this child, including her sense of smell and how to survive in the forest.
The cave was the place this child and her wolf pack had lived. Now, it was empty. Lin Yu Tong entered using the body’s instincts. In a rock crevice, she found a gold locket wrapped up in fur. This was the only keepsake the child had a vague memory of.
On the locket was the characters for “Ru Yi.”
Lin Yu Tong looked and was more certain that this child was not Azhu or Azi.
She threw the locket into her pocket space. She never thought about finding her family. Why recognize that unreliable pair of parents?
She did not dare to stay longer here. Leaving the cave, she walked down the mountain. With the experience of the forest, it was not tiring. The quality of this body was very good. Only when the sun went down did she walk out of the mountain and saw the path off the mountain.
She returned to her space, ate a full meal, washed, and quickly fell asleep. The next-day, she took along a pouch of silver before leaving.
The sun was just rising, and there was bird song in the forest. After walking half an hour, she reached the government road. Which direction to go was not important to her. Right now, she could only judge she was in the south. She did not know anything else. She needed to find people and confirm her location.
She urgently needed a horse or a carriage as her transport. She did not dare to imagine walking such a long road with her feet. In the modern times, walking was a form of exercise. In the Red Chamber, she only walked in her courtyard. If she left the courtyard, she had sedans. If she went beyond the second door, she had carriages. She never had to walk anywhere. If her body was not so good, Lin Yu Tong would just stand here and wait for a carriage to pass by.
After walking about an hour, there were finally passerby on the road.
Half of these people were from the jianghu. Lin Yu Tong did not dare to talk to them. If she ran around the world with her dart gun, it was just seeking death. If she encountered people like this, she would walk on the side, and try to lower her feeling of existence. She had no ties in this world, and no clear goal. If she could go to Wuliang Mountain, she could learn the Graceful Wave Step, and she would have the ability to flee. Then, she could plot about other things, such as the physician skills of the Carefree Sect.
Hearing the people on the road gossip, she learned she was heading to Gusu, and immediately understood.
The Sparrow Dock was less than thirty miles from Gusu City, and the Little Mirror Lake of Ruan Xing Zhu was not far from Sparrow Dock. So it was reasonable that she was outside Gusu.
Translator Ramblings: We move now to the Eight Books of the Heavenly Dragons or the more poplar title “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” by Jin Yong, known best for the Condor Heroes Trilogy. Wikipedia has a very detailed plot summary and character sheet. In short, the story is set during the time of the Song Dynasty, but moves around the Khitan, Dali and Western Xia with characters from various states/countries. The main family is the imperial family of Dali, surname Duan. In Heavenly Dragon, one of the princes, Duan Zheng Chun, is a known philanderer with many illegitimate daughters, and Lin Yu Tong has been dropped into this world as one of them.
- Grafting Life Chapter 70 – Red Chamber (70)
- Grafting Life Chapter 72 – Heavenly Dragon (2)
- Grafting Life Chapter 73 – Heavenly Dragon (3)
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